Method for forming fur filled yarn



Nev. 26, 1946. F. soNlN Erm.

METHOD FOR FORMING FUR FILLED YARN Filed Oct. l1, 1943 Patented Nov. 26, 1 946 ici:

METHOD EUR FORMING FUR FILLED YARN Frances Sonln and Moris II. Siegel, New York, N. Y.

Application-October 11, 1943, Serial No. 505,716

l i8 Claims. The invention relates to a method and apparatus for forming filled or core yam to be woven into a fur filled fabric in making artificial fur from which may be-fashioned coats and other articles usually made from natural fur.

The primary objectof the invention is to utilize and thus provide a new market for a presently cheap form of waste fur hairs which, due primarily to the extremely short length of most of the hairs,

are of no practical use and can thus be purchased cheaply from the fur industry. 'Ihis waste comes from clipping, cutting; shavings, combings and dyeing in the treatment of fur skins and exists as an indefinite fluffy mass oi entangled hairs of varying lengths but mostly of short lengths.

This waste material is at present being thrown away bythe furriers as a useless by-product of their work. Thepresentdisclosure contemplates the formingoi an end product from this waste material and which end product is a woven fabric which will have most of the visual characteristics of the fur side of a natural skin.

In actual practice, it has been found possible vto mix the hair from. different kinds of animal skins in practicing the method herein featured and in this way to give a wide variety of novel and beautiful eiects to the resulting fabrics not Y known with the natural skins.y y

Considering the method aspect of the present disclosure, the object is to provide an improved technique for utilizing the fur waste asa coating for a thread or similar filament to form a fur iilled yarn capable of being used conventionally in a fabric weaving machine. The method particularly contemplates the'forming of the yarn by a sequence of steps including a disintegrating and opening out of the mass of indenitely inter- A meshedV hairs in which this waste is available;

the prelayin-g of the hairs at least somewhat in i parallelism; a gentle lifting of the. hairs ony to a travelling thread, in distinction from blowin them on to the thread, and which thread is prefer-r ably rotating about its own axis and sometimes coated with an adhesive. v

Various other` objects and advantages of the invention will be in partobvious from a consideration of the method -features of the disclosure andfrom an inspection of the :accompanying drawing and in part will be more fully set forth in the following particular description of one method of practicing the invention, and the inven.. tion also consists in certain new and novel modications of the preferred method and other features' 'of construction and combination of parts hereinafter set forth and claimed.

' side 2| of the hopper I4.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. `l is a plan view of a machine forming a preferred embodiment of the apparatus aspect of the disclosure with parts shown largely in symbolic outline, with the contents of the hopper at the vleft side of Fig. 2 omitted, Vand which machine'in its operation discloses one way in which the method aspects ofthe invention may be practiced; in this showing the driving mechanism for actuating the several movable parts have been omitted to avoid confusion of showing conventional drive mechanism; S

Fig. 2 isa vertical sectional view taken in the medial longitudinal plane through Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged plan view of the top of the treating compartment at the upper right hand portion of Fig. 2 showing the parallel relation oi' the core forming thread to the discharge slot;

Fig. fi is an enlarged detail view in axial section of the ironer shown in smaller form in advanceo the slot in Figs. l and 2;

Fig. 5 is a view of a short length of the finished yarn as it comes od the'machine, highly magnified in an attempt to show its details and shown partly in longitudinal section; and y Fig. 6 is a transverse sectional view of the yarn shown in Fig. 5 taken on the plane indicated by the line of Fig. 5. e

The machine i0 may be divided for purposes of description into a measuring device il, a combined disintegrating and hair applying device l2 and an organization i3 of thread treating ele-l ments.

The measuring device il comprising an open top hopper it provided in lan inside wall and midheight thereof with a discharge port I5. Positioned in order from left to right in the hopper isa feeder i3 and a measuring drum I] for receiving the Awaste from the feeder. Between the drum il and the port l5 is a stripper I8 for dipping a layer of waste off the drum, through port i5 and thus into the first or receiving compartment i9 of the device i2.

The feeder I6 comprises a broad bladed upstanding pusher plate 20 slidably mounted for reciprocatory movement along the inclinedouter The pusher is hung from a lever 22 so as to swing therefrom and the lever is operatively connected to the drive mechanism of the machine (not shown) to operate with suflicien't activity to maintain the fur waste against the measuring drum I1 as it is introduced into thefhopper. The pusher in its elevating movement permits the waste to fall between itself and the drum I1 and in its lowering movement packs the waste against the perimeter of the drum! The measuring drum is a metal wheel mounted to be driven from shaft 23 connected to the main driving mechanism. The periphery of the drum is a narrow band 26 in one form of the drive about one and one-half inches wide andI provided with a plurality of `circumferentially spaced apart short ledges 25 extending-transversely of the band 2d. Each ledge is provided at its outer edge with .a flange 25. All of the flanges extend in the direction of rotation of the drum, that is in a clockwise direction.. A doctor 23, provided with outwardly projecting wire spring fingers 26 is mounted for rotation above the drum to feed the material thereto.

The flanged ledges 25 on the drum act as the drum rotates from left to right about its top to coact with the doctor to withdraw from the mass of hair in the hopper ameasured amount of the mass per rotation of the drum and doctor and draws it out into a long, thin ribbon-like form having the width of the drum.v The ledges are very small extending -beyond the drum about 312 of an inch so that-the resulting ribbon of matted hair has about that thickness as it leaves the drum. As the drum rotates it advances this ribbon over the top of the drum, past the stripper I8 and as a freely floating streamer on through the port I5 and into the compartment I9.

The stripper I8 includes a shaft 21 geared externally of the hopper to thedrum shaft 23 and extending from the shaft 21 is a plurality, shown to be four, of blades 28 of somewhat stili and yet slightly flexible leather, The stripper rotates counter-clockwise and the outer edges of its blades engage the ribbon of matted hair and bodily raises it off the drum so that very little, if any, of the hair which has so passed as a ribbon over the top of the drum is ever carried about the under side of the drum. After the ledges pass the point I5 they begin to pick up the waste which accumulates in the bottom of the hopper and the pusher plate tends to pack the waste somewhat so that there is a fairly uniform density to the ribbon. The thin ribbon of hair iloats away from the stripper and moves gently into the compartment I9 as indicated by the arrows. understood that at this point the hair while it is in ribbon form is still in an indefinitely matted condition and still has about the density of the original stock as it is fed into the hopper.

The device I2 comprises an upstanding metal casing 29 provided with a dividing wall 30 forming two compartments, the first or receiving compartment I9 and a second or discharging compartment 3|. tween the compartment by an aperture 32 about mid-height of the wall 30, Just below the aperture 32, roller 33 coacts with a guide piece 34 to divide the compartment I9 into a lower receiving portion 35 and an upper discharging portion 36 and to form a constrictive throat 31 between the roller 33 and guide piece 34.

Journalled within the portion 35 and located one above the other are two picker rollers 38 and 39 intergeared exteriorly of the casing t`o rotate in the same direction, that is, counter-clockwise as indicated by the arrows. In the lower part of the upper portion 36 is journalled a single picker roller 40 intergeared to rotate counter-clockwise and thus in a direction to receive the material discharged through the throat 31 and advance the same with an undersweeping action through Communication is provided be-v 4 tane aperture 32 and hence into the compartment Within the compartment 3| are journalled three picker -rollers 4I, 42 and 43 intergeared with each other and with the main drive to rotate counter-clockwise. lThe several picker rollers act on the matted hair to disintegrate the same. They tear the hair particles apart, open up the mass, or differently expressed, reduce the specific density of the original stock until it assumes a light, fluffy cloud -like effect as it accumulates in the upper portion. of the compartment 3i.

In one practical operationand where a ne grade of fur hair was used, the hair particles were separated so that the mass might be said to be translucent when light was directed-t\ ough a thickness thereof of about one foot. he fur material follows the path indicated by the larrows moving upwardly through the constricted\throat 31 into the lower part of portion 36, thenlaterally through aperture 32 and then upwardly in the compartment 3 I.

The top wall 44 ofthe casing 29 is provided with a long, narrow slot 45 providing a discharge opening from the top of the compartmentl 3i. It is particularly noted that there is no fan or other air pressure or blower means acting on the mass of hair as it moves through the casing 29 towards the discharge slot. The pickers and particularly the terminal pickers `4I43 are revolving at high speed and'. they may generate a gentle, barely perceptible updraft which assists ln moving the disintegrated and flocculent mass of hair in a foam-like stream through the slot. The final discharge through the slot appears to be more of a pushing action of the advancing mass than a blowing action. The resulting fluff simply moves upwardlyv and thus against the actionof gravity as would a foam from beer or other gas charged liquid. A11 that is visible is that a cloud of loose hai;` rises up out of the slot in a fairly uniform rate per unit of length along the entire length of the slot.

In those cases where the waste hair used is of the straight, non-curling type a peculiar phenomena takes place in the upper portion of the .compartment 3| just below the slot. 4The nal picker 43 exerts an orientating action on the mass to lay the hairs in the same direction. The hairs for the most part arrange themselves in parallelism with their original outer or pointed ends pointing in the direction of travel of the upper portion of the top picker roller 43, that is pointing to the left4 in the showing in Fig. 2.

Of course, this means that the hairs so pointing have their thiol; end, base or root ends pointing to the right of the showing as they are lifted through the slot. While all of the hairs are not so orientated, and as a matter of fact all of them are not even brought into parallelism but remain intertwined with each other, still most of the hairsand particularly the long, thin fur hairs are so arranged with their pointed ends pointing in the same direction. The extremely short hairs in theI mass have a tendency to remain in a more or less matted form but, of course, not so matted as in the original stock.

In those cases where a curling, screw-like or wavy type of fur hair is used, as in the case of sheeps wool, the hair is disintegrated and discharged through the slot as previously described, but in these cases there is no noticeable arrangement of the hair particles in parallel relation and4 fact that m sheep's wool, for instance, the hair is, interlocked by its screw or spiral construction.l

and thus resists'the action of the pickers to separate and arrange it in parallel relation.

The thread treating device i6 includes a set of drawing rollers it for drawing a single thread t under tension from a supply spool (not shown) I and across the slot it in position to receive the discharge from the same. The slot is quite narrow and dimensioned so that the thread almost but not quite acts as a closure for the same as shown in Fig. 3. Differently expressed, the thread is centered over the slot and there. is provided on opposite sides of the thread long clearances of extremely narrow width.

Considered from right to left of the showing in Figs. l and 2- there is disclosed a spring pressed presser fooi-,161 for restraining the freethe casing 29. The thread is passed over andin engagement with the flat top of a steel block 50 which acts to prevent the hairs from flying loose frm the revolving thread. From the block 60 the covered yarn is passed through bore 5i of an ironer 52 mounted on top of the casing 29. The bore El is of conical form as shown in Fig. 4 with the larger endv forming the intake end for receiving the `coated thread or yarn.

The disclosure contemplates the twisting of the thread and resulting yarn about its own axis during the period while it is receiving the hair" over the slot and while being drawn through the ironer. For this purpose,v the yarn is passed through the este as of rotary twister es includ-,-

ing a tubular shell mounted for rotary movement about its own axis in a bearing 56 carried by bracket 5l in turntcarried by casing is.

Within the bore 5t are mounted four grooved spools 59 each free to turn about its own axis, two on each side of the thread. The spool axes extend in parallel relation and transversely of the axis of rotation of the twister. The two middle spools are arranged sothat their adjacent peripheries are each inset slightly beyond the path of the thread thereby to cause the thread as it passes through the rbore to assume the wavy or undulated offset form shown in Fig.

`2. Diferently described, the plane tangent to the spools of one set is offset inwardly beyond the plane tangent tothe spools of 'the other set. The twister is provided with a driving pulley 59 belted to the drive mechanism and intended to be" driven at high speed. The twister acts on the yarn to give it a definite tortional twist and this twist extends` from the presser foot'i to the drawing rollers d6, the twist being clockwise between the twister and rollers and counterclockwise between the twister and presser foot.

During the movement of the twisted thread in its `advance along the slot, it is dragged through the long narrow stream of loosely matted cloud of hair rising out of the slot and acts to pick up the hair. It is understood that as it passes through the mass of hair the thread is rapidly rotating so that the hair for the most part is twisted on to the thread to form a closely matted inner layer with many of the hairs sticking outwardly from the hair coating.

As the coated thread is advanced through the ironer 52 the more or less loose short hair coating having their inner,

in the adhesive and in the closely matted coating, v but these pointed hair e is circumferentially compacted; the hair more thoroughlyintertwined and pressed ilrmly into the adhesivecoating. The resulting yarh is of much less diameter than when fed into the ironer.

Itis noted that the thread andsubsequent yam is advanced in the same direction, that is from right to left in the showing in Figs. 1 and 2, in which the lstraight hairs point as they were discharged through the slot. This means, of course, that most oi' the hairs are laid on the thread with their pointed ends in advance and due to thetwist 'of the yarn as it passes through the ironer these hairs will be formed in the yarn with a screw-like or spiral lay'and with their pointed ends in advance, that is, pointed to the left.

In this operation all of the hairs do not so lie within the outlines of the matted hair covering on the core forming thread. ofthe threads, and usually the longer threads, wider or base-ends embedded Y ends. extend freely outwardly from the coating in somewhat spaced apart relation ished yarn.

-The resulting yarn y isdifiicult to show pie- -toriallydue to the ineness of the hairsjbut reference to Figs. 5 and 6 will show the yarn aty least in a crude way. In these ngures the central core is formed by the twisted thread t,tcoated with a. thin layer ofadhesive g and into which adhesive the coating c of matted hairs is more or less embedded. The free outwardly pointing hairs are shown at h. By the time the yarn has reached th drawing rollers 46 it Vhas passed along a stretch suicient to insure anair drying and lis delivered to the take up spool inA a commercially dry condition. Incidentally, no more adhesive is used than is just suilicient to insure the sticking of the hair to the thread.

By means of a driving connection with a source of power the speed of the measuring drum l'i and pickers 38-43 is so synchronized with the travel of the thread t `and resulting yarn y under the pull of the drawing rollers 46 that the requisite amount of fur covering is located on the thread per unit length to sive the requisite extent of covering. For the purpose of controlling the relative speeds of the different drawing rollers, drum and picker rollers to meet the varying conditions imposedy by different types of fur in use for the time being, the machine will include conventional change speed mechanism.

While this disclosure features the use of a. single thread, and which in practice is a strong cotton thread, it is within the scope ofthe disclosure to use two threads parallel to each other and which threads become twisted one on the other conventionally. In this case, theadhesive may be omitted or materially reduced as the i twisting of two threads one on the other is suf-- ficient in most 'cases' to hold the fur coating in place until it reaches the ironer. As the coated core, either of the single or double thread, passes through the ironer the coating will be rather firmly packed into' place.

The inished yarn y formed is wound on to a take up spool 60 replaceably mounted on shaft 6i operatively connected to the drive mechanism.

The spool 601s used conventionally in a fabric weaving machine and the yarn'thereon is woven into a cloth which on both sides looks very much likethe fur side of a natural fur skin. It partakes of the appearance of the hair of the animal A certain percentage `along the entire length of the illn-v which supplied the waste cuttings. For instance, waste hair from a gray squirrel can-be made into a yarn, the yarn into a fabric and the fabric into an artificial gray squirrel coat which looks as if it were made from natural gray squirrel skins.

Fabrics made from the waste hair cuttings from a long haired animal like a fox produce a beautiful black or brown soft glossy surface which with its ne hair ends produces the silky effect of a high price skin of fox.

By suitably mixing in the hopper the waste hair from different kinds of fur an indenite number of dierently appearing forms of resulting fabric may be obtained.

While fur hair of both the straight and curled variety has been specically described herein, it is within the scope of the disclosure to use other forms cf waste material such, for instance, as

feathers. f

We claim:

l. In the art of forming a fur covered yarn, the method which consists in drawing from an indefinite matted mass of fur Waste hairs a thin V layer of the same in measured amounts per unit of time, discharging the layer into a confined space; progressively disintegrating the material so discharged to separate the same into a ne oating fluff, causing the nud at the end of the disintegrating step to move gently upwardly and thus against the action of gravity and in to a narrow, long path and causing an adhesively coated thread to traverse along the length of said path and closely above the same to pick up the fur fluff as it rises on to the thread, the travel of the thread and the amount of fur waste advanced in the layer per unit of time being synchronized to provide the requisite degree of fur coating on the thread per unit of length.

2. In the art of forming a fur covered yarn, the method which consists in drawing from an indefinite. matted mass of fur waste hairs a thin layer of the same in measured amounts per unit of time, discharging the layer into a confined space, progressively disintegrating the material so discharged to separate the same into a fine floating fluff, causing the :duif at the end of the disintegrating step to move gently upwardly and thus against the action of gravity and into a narrow, long path and causing .an adhesively coated thread to traverse along the length of said path and closely above the same to pickup/the fur fluff as it rises on to the thread, while twisting the threadv about its own axis as it passes alongsaid path.

3. In the art of preparing lfrom an indefinite matted mass of waste fur hairs a fur coating for a yarn, the method which consists in forming a Athin layer from the original matted mass, discharging the layer as formed into a confined space free of any fan or other air pressure or blower action, subjecting the same while in said space to a distintegrating action to reduce the original density to a light uffy mass and causing the iinal mass to float from its point of disintegration to its point of discharge in substantially quiescent air upwardly and thus rcontra to the action of gravity as it is discharged from said confined space directly into the atmosphere and substantially without assistance from any kinetic force inherent in the air in said space.

4. In the art of forming a filling for a yarn, the method which consists in withdrawing from a mass of matted fur hairs a limited amount of the same per unit of time in the forming of a, thin ribbon, subjecting the same to successive picking actions to distintegrate the material of the ribbon progressively to form the same nnally into a light fluffy mass and with thehair particles sufficiently separated so that the mass is translucent and gently lifting, in distinction from blowing or throwing or hurling, the same gently and while causing it to assume a unilateral di mension as it is caused to be transferred on to a thread passed therethrough and along the path defined by said .unilateral direction.

5. In the'art of forming a. lling for a yarn, the method which consists in withdrawing from a mass of matted fur hairs a limited amount of the same per unit of time in the forming of a thin ribbon, subjecting the same while exposed tov the environmental air condition to successive picking actions to'distintegrate the material of the ribbon progressively to form the same finally into a light fiuffy mass and with the hair par ticles more or less adhering to an extremely lccse matted lform but sufciently separated so that the mass is translucent and causing the mass while in such translucent form. to assume a lengthwise form and causing the mass to be moved by the pushing action of the advancing mass and causing the translucent mass to rise upwardly direct from the last picking step to a discharge point while maintaining its translucent condition.

6. In the art of treating a matted mass of straight fur hair, the method which consists in. subjecting the mass to a picking action to disintegrate the mass and to cause the hairs for the most part to assume a substantially parallel relation, and subjecting the resulting hair to the effect of a lifting pressure while carrying the mass of carded hair to assume a unilateral form extending in the direction in whichA the hairs for -the most part lie at thetermination of the picking action.

7. In the art of treating a matted mass of straight fur hair, the method which consists in subjecting the mass to a picking action to disintegrate the mass and to cause the hairs for the J most part to assume a substantially parallel relation and causing those'hairs which are in such parallel relation to pass upwardly through a narrow slot extending in the direction of such parallel relation.

8. In the art of filling yarn the method which consists in drawing a thread through a. mass of fur hairs where the hairs extend for the most part in the direction of the length of the thread while twisting the thread and subjecting the thread with its layer of hairs thereon to an ironing action, said ironing action progressively drawing the yarn radially inwardly, thus causing the h'air to become condensed and matted circumferentially about Ythe twisting thread.

9. The method of producing from a matted mass of fur hairs a thin flat ribbon of the same,

and separating its hairs into a fluffy mass caus- 11. The method of drawing. yarn under tension first through an ironer to compact and reduce the diameter of the yarn and them through a' twister to twist the yarn about its own axis and thus give it a tortional twist as thefyarn is drawn through the ironer. l 4

12. In the art of forming a fur covered yarn, the method which consists in drawing from an indefinite matted mass of fur waste hairs a thin layer of the same in measured amounts per unit of time, discharging the layer into a conned space, disintegrating the material so discharged to separate the same into a flneiloating nuff, causing the uff at the end of the disintegrating step to move gently into a narrow, long path and causing an adhesively coated thread to traverse along the length of said path to pick up the fur .iiul 4as it moves on to the thread, the trave1 of the thread and the amount of fur wasteadvanced 4in the layer per unit of time being synchronized to provide the requisite degree of fur coating on the thread per unit of length.

13. In the art of forming a fur covered-yarn, the method which consists in drawing from an indefinite matted mass of fur Waste hairs a thin layer of the same in measured amounts per unit of time, discharging the layer into a confined space, progressively disintegrating the material so discharged to separate the same into a finel floating fluff, causing the ui at the end of the disintegrating step to move gently into a narrow,

-long path and causing an adhesively coated thread to traverse along the length of said path and closely adjacent to the same to pick up the fur fluff as it advances on to the thread, while twisting the thread about its own axis as it passes along said path. i

14. In the art of forming a filled yarn, the method which consists in drawing from a mass of lling material a layer of the same, disintein a fixed plane, and directing thau while in said plane on to a thread travelling in said plane and thus through the layer of small thickness of fluff while twisting the thread. t

15. In the art of forming a fur lled yarn, the method whichconsists in forming in-space a thin layer of fur hair fluff disposed in a plane, passing an adhesively coated thread under tension through said uii" while in such plane to cause the thread to pick up particles of the uff and twisting the thread in one clockwise direction while passing along the place where the thread picks up the u. t

16. The method of claim thread is twisted in the opposite direction after it has passed said place there-by tending to release the tension on the thread after the ufi has been I applied thereto.

17. The method of claim 15 and in which the resulting yarn is ironed to circumferentially compact the hair into the adhesive coating.

18. In the art of forming a fur lled yarn with a closely matted inner layer, which consists in causing an originally more or less matted mass of fur hairs to assume the form of a light fluffy mass with at least some of the hair orientated into parallel relation with their pointed ends pointed in the same direction, advancing the mas's by a pushing action of the advancing mass in distinction 4from a blowing action on to a thread under tension and travelling in the direction in which the pointed ends of the hairs point and twisting the thread in one rotary direction as v it advances across the place where it receives grating the layer to separate the same into aoose mass of ne floating ul with its particles substantially separated, causing the lu to assume a. layer of relatively small thickness and disposed the hairs and twisting the resulting 'lled yarn in the opposite rotary direction immediately after it has passed said space.

. FRANCES SONIN.

MORRIS H. SEGEL.

15 and wherein the- 

